I’m going to do the drive shaft replacement project on the Discovery this weekend. I purchased the drive shaft and such a few months ago and have finally got a weekend loose to finish it. I will be able to use my buddy, JagGuy’s lift so this should go swimmingly well. I’ll take lots of pics and get a Tech Tip write up as soon as I am able.
Treasure Blind (Post #80) 8/1/2007
A while back I told you all of a motion picture I was asked to be an extra in. It is called Treasure Blind. I recently found their website and thought I’d share it with you.
Treasure Blind
If you go to the Media section and look at the pictures you will see me in a few. Notably….
- #80 on the far right behind the musket stack holding a pipe.
- #88 kneeling in front of the Director (with his arm up).
- #90 facing away with the blanket role over my shoulder.
I took lots of pics and thought I’d wrote up an Adventure entry, but I guess I didn’t. Or I deleted it by accident. So I’ll have to write it up again. So until I get that done you can enjoy the links to the movie.
How is this “Rover Related”? Well I drove my Discovery up there and slept in her over night…in a barn…during a thunderstorm.
66,666 (Post #79) 7/29/2007
With 66,666 miles rolling past on the odometer a couple of problems have popped up. I have had the dreaded “Three Amigos” light up on the dash 3 times now. Each time they pop up I seem to be applying my brakes on bumpy road surfaces. And each time I stop the Disco and shut off the engine, when I return to start her up again they are gone. I’m sure it’s the brakes as I have a squeeking pad somewhere on the vehicle. I purchased new pads that should arrive this week.
I also have been getting the Service Engine light. It stays on for a few hours but it has not stayed on continuously. So I purchased an Innova Equus 3130 code reader.
I got it for a good price off of eBay. This model allows you to get live data from the vehicle while it’s running. The sole set back at this time is the RS232 cable it shipped with. Most modern computers don’t use serial connections. So I’ll have to buy a serial port for my computer. Hopefully I will be able to catch the code the Disco is throwing and get it corrected.
Other than these slight annoyances I have been happy with the Disco. I really enjoyed the air conditioning on the drive home from the 35 and older Senior Division softball tournament I play in on Sunday. Our team was terrible, but what did we expect for one practice with 6 players showing up. Several of us had not even played this year. I saw guys out there that I played with 15 years ago, and I know they still play twice a week at least.
I have lots still to do on the Rangie, including getting the bushings swapped, the exhaust, recharging the air conditioner and the rust on the lower tail gate. Those are the three big projects I still haven’t completed. I’d like to replace the head unit in the sound system and have seen some Range Rover II radios for as low as 65 bucks on eBay. The original unit can be repaired for a cost of around 200 and I’ve gotten quotes for about the same amount for another one. Thats a bit pricey considering what you can buy in the retail shops.
Thanks for reading and happy rovering.
New Blog (Post #78) 7/27/2007)
I have finally moved the Rover Log over to a blogging site. It gives me a lot of freedom and a little more exposure to the blogosphere. Like that matters.
Anyway.
All the post from the old blog are here and with the labels at the bottom you can see related posts. Neat-o, right?
Thanks for reading, and happy Rovering.
July 7th, 2007 (Post #77) Hehehe 77th post on 7/7/07
Helping out a fellow Rover driver
Bo Pham recently sent out an email to some of the OK Rovers members about his pending brake project. He has 1997 Disco I he bought from Paul in Tulsa. It is lifted and has big tires on it. And Bo loves to offroad in it. He decided to upgrade the brakes. So I thought I could help him out.
I went over on a Saturday. I met his daughters and proceeded to start on the project. I tried to think of all the wacky tools you might need for this project. I didn’t think hard enough I guess as I didn’t have my “C” clip removal tool. Also he forgot to buy grease to repack the bearings. So before we got too far I ran to the O’Reilly’s and got some supplies.
We started the tear down and to my surprise it is exactly like my 1993 Range Rover. I showed him some tips about the rebuild. He took pictures and we got busy.
His grease was badly fouled and it reminded me that if you offroad in the water you should plan on repacking your bearings and draining your swivel oil and refreshing it. Bo had lots of sand on everything. I recommended he swap out the fluids in there to prevent premature wear from fluids that failed.
I couldn’t figure out the disc removal. And I ran out of time to assist. We had only got one wheel started. He continued on after I left with the help of Melissa and her boy friend. He managed to get the discs off and it all swapped out.
Bo owns the Cafe Bella Bistro on South Pennsylvania Avenue at the intersection of SW 89th street. He will be getting us together in the future at his bistro for some Rover related meetings in the near future.
Thanks for letting me help. I had a good time.
June 26th, 2007 (Post #76)
June 26th, 2007
Not much going on
I haven’t been on to post in a few months. Mostly because, there hasn’t been anything going on. The price of fuel is outrageous. RovErica is driving the Range Rover now. She is quickly learning that like a Sherman Tank, it’s not far to empty in a Range Rover. The sunroof is no longer going back. You can still vent it. But it is jams on when you try to retract it. I’ll have to take it our of the truck I fear to diagnose the problem.
She also reported a screeching sound. But cannot reproduce it. I think it’s brakes but she says it
is not. We also heard a strangle thumping sound under her when we were driving around 50mph on Sunday. Sounded like a tire with a bubble on it. But the tires are still perfect.
is not. We also heard a strangle thumping sound under her when we were driving around 50mph on Sunday. Sounded like a tire with a bubble on it. But the tires are still perfect.
The Disco is still going strong.
I think I’m getting a little bit better gas mileage of late. I’m
not sure what to attribute it to though. Could the summer formula of gas make any difference?
I think I’m getting a little bit better gas mileage of late. I’m
not sure what to attribute it to though. Could the summer formula of gas make any difference?
I’m still looking for a trailer.
I’ve run into some interesting possibilities. I know where two M116A2 and one M105 trailers are for sale in OKC. The owner wants 450$ each and 650$ if I want the tarps. The M116A2’s formerly had 10kW generators on them. I have looked through the government surplus site at Government Liquidation and see them for sale there but usually with a generator on them. Now I’d love to have a generator on my property. Especially one I could run the whole house on. But I don’t have the money for that type of project.
I’ve run into some interesting possibilities. I know where two M116A2 and one M105 trailers are for sale in OKC. The owner wants 450$ each and 650$ if I want the tarps. The M116A2’s formerly had 10kW generators on them. I have looked through the government surplus site at Government Liquidation and see them for sale there but usually with a generator on them. Now I’d love to have a generator on my property. Especially one I could run the whole house on. But I don’t have the money for that type of project.
The M105 trailers are plentiful right now. They have sides and a tailgate. They are also very high up. I’m not sure lowering them is possible. These things are really big too. I used to pull them behind my M554 Kaiser when I was in the Marine Corps. We put the powder for the artillery rounds in them.
The Tool Trailers will probably escape my purchase this time as I don’t have the money right now to do this project. But for an almost ready to go storage trailer/camp kitchen I don’t think you can get any closer than these Pioneer Tool Outfit trailers. They are selling right now for under 400$ on the auction. I’m not sure how high these would go.
Of course the perfect trailers are these Ammunition Trailers. I would like one of these for the pure utility of them. For the most part the adventure of camping is just getting your stuff to the site. And they don’t make trailers this tough.
These sell for around 300$. I know they are available at Surplus stores in North Carolina for this advertised price. Some people put frames on trailers like this and mount their roof top tents on them.
The possibility of getting an M116A2 is still in the works. A fellow here in OKC has them as I mentioned before. M116A2. These trailers have definate potential. The bows are
steel and would support nicely a tent for the tent over style of expedition trailer. Boxes for the kitchen and storage of other stuff would need to be bought or made. This and fact that the two I see will need a few hundred dollars of paint stripping and painting make them the more expensive of the possibilities. You can see they sit pretty high too. That picture is of a lifted Toyota pulling it. The front stone shield would have to be fabricated. But it could be built to hold the spare and the fuel cans and the jacks and the Hi-Lift jack.
steel and would support nicely a tent for the tent over style of expedition trailer. Boxes for the kitchen and storage of other stuff would need to be bought or made. This and fact that the two I see will need a few hundred dollars of paint stripping and painting make them the more expensive of the possibilities. You can see they sit pretty high too. That picture is of a lifted Toyota pulling it. The front stone shield would have to be fabricated. But it could be built to hold the spare and the fuel cans and the jacks and the Hi-Lift jack.
Tents are easy to come by. There are several out there. Most of them start around 1500 and go up. I recently found an outfit on eBay that was selling a rooftop for under 800$. I will probably get one if I go that route. I still haven’t ruled out getting a pop-up camper. But the same deal applies there. How cheap can I get one and how much will it take to get it in shape and fixed up to use? Something tells me I should probably get a pop-up if I want the wife to go along with me on these trips. But who knows, we haven’t even been out yet.
You can see the possibilities are nearly endless. With a budget of around 2000$ you could make a pretty nice outfit. But, sadly, I don’t have 2000 dollars right now.
Blogging
As this is a “blog” by definition. The possibility of moving this to the Blogger website has come up. I currently blog on Devil Dog’s Daily News. It would be much easier for me to post things up if I used this format. And easier for you to look up items and subjects.
So look for that soon.
As this is a “blog” by definition. The possibility of moving this to the Blogger website has come up. I currently blog on Devil Dog’s Daily News. It would be much easier for me to post things up if I used this format. And easier for you to look up items and subjects.
So look for that soon.